Carlisle City Hall’s relocation and renovation plan is projected to come in under budget, according to city officials.

“Generally speaking, the remodel is progressing nicely and we’ve got a great team working over there,” Carlisle City Council member Eric Goodhue said.

Goodhue is excited to use the new facility and expects it to be a great addition to the growth and development of the community.

“If things progress as planned, we are on target for moving into the building in early May of 2021,” Carlisle City Manager Deven Markley said in an email.

Voters approved a ballot March 3, 2020 during a special election to fund both the new Carlisle City Hall project and the renovation of the current building for use by the Carlisle Police Department.

The funding propositions allowed for general obligations bonds of $1.850 million for moving the city hall into the former Great Western Bank building, and another $2.9 million to redesign and retrofit the former city hall for the police department.

Construction started this year on Oct. 2.

Under the plan, city hall would move from the current location at 195 N. First St. to the former Great Western Bank building at 120 First St.

The police department is housed in the basement of the current city hall, built in 1994, and would take over the entire building. The moves would roughly double the space available for city hall and the police department.

The original contract for renovating the former Great Western Bank was $1,365,300 with an additional $100,000 in contingency funds for expected change orders.

City council approved a flurry of change orders at its Dec. 14 meeting of $93,319 added to the project’s construction budget.

Markley and Goodhue said the main cost of the change orders was approximately $91,000 to give the building a “facelift” including removing the existing exterior insulation finishing system and replacing it with a metal panel system.

Markley said this exterior system offers better longevity and improved aesthetics for the outside of the building. He said the original price for that work was $99,700, but the design team worked with the city’s general contractor to get a better metal panel product that brought the cost down to $91,000.

The other change orders included covering costs of asbestos removal, plumbing changes, termite damage repairs and other building operational and construction items.

Goodhue said these change orders were not wholly unexpected when the city started this project and said that he was a vocal proponent of the change order for the metal paneling. He said despite these change orders, the project is expected to finish under budget.

“I think that new façade and metal paneling will change the look of the building so that now when people drive by they won’t think it’s the new bank building but rather the new city hall,” Goodhue said.

The Record-Herald previously reported that remodeling the current city hall building for the expanded police department was expected to cost $2.4 million and an estimated $4.5 million would be used to relocate the Carlisle Public Library from the current location at 135 School St. into the city-owned recreation center on Fifth Street.

The library project was not addressed in the March bond vote. Goodhue said the library move won’t be considered until 2024 after both the city hall and police department relocations and renovations are completed.

“Not just the police have outgrown their building, but city hall has outgrown their building too, and this will provide much needed space and allow us to look to the future,” Goodhue said.

George Shillcock is the Register’s Des Moines southern suburbs reporter. He can be reached at GShillcock@registermedia.com and on twitter @ShillcockGeorge

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